



tm 



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pH83 



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ADDRESS 



TO TUB 



PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OP 



THE ASSOCIATION OF LOYAL PENNSYLVANIANS. 



OP WASHINGTON, D. C. 



SEIPTEl^BEI^, 1864=- 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
PRINTED AND STEREOTYPED BY McGILL & WITDEROYT. 
'-> ' v 18G4. 



Il 



.A- 



LOYAL PENNSYLVANIANS. 

The Association of Loyal Pknnsylvanians of "Washinp^ton city, D. C, wi-.^? f)rrac<l 
on tlie evening of March :], ISul Previous to this d;itc sovcrtil niectinf^s were held iii tho 
Clerk's Ki)oni nf tho llou.eeof lleprcsontatives, at which time a /,'cnoral feolin?^ wa:^ maiiiri-stod 
in favor of combining the patriotism and intelligcaeo of rennsylvaiiian- rc^idiivT in \7ash- 
ington and vicinity, and form an organization forthe purijosc of i)roiiioting tho election of tho 
candidates of the lialtimore Convention by tho dissemination r)f information upon tlv; great 
issues of the day amongst the !jeoi)lo of tho State of Pennsylvania, especially tho;;e disU-icr* 
uow reiiresented by "Copperheads"' in Congress. 

The proposition met with a heart3' resixmse, and at the time specified a Constitution an'l 
Bye-Laws were adopted, and tho Association fully organized by electing the foilov/inif 
oilicers : 

» PRESIDENT. 

Hon. JOHN K. MOOPvHEAD. 

VICE PRESIDENTS. 

Uoy. JOnX W. FORNEY, A. B. GROrfll, Esq. JUDSOX HOLCOMB, Esy. 

RECORDING SECRETARY. CORRESPONDING SECRET.illY. 

JOHN M. SULLIVAN, Esq. J. PENN JONES, Esq. 

TREASURER. 

n. C. FAHNESTOCK, Esq. 

An Executive Committee was appointed, upon whom devolved the duty of taking cogni- 
eance of passing events; to advance tho objects of the organization ; to call public mcoting-i 
of the Association as the exigencies of the time might demand, and in every way stiive t^ 
support tho Government in the enfDrcemontof the Laws and the suppression of tlie ileuellion. 
The nominations having been made at Baltimore, and the proposition to continue for another 
term ABRAHAM LIMCOLN for President and ANDREW JOHNSON for Vice I'reai- 
dcnt of these United States, renewed ardor has been awakened in the breast of every loj'iil 
•on of the good old State of Pennsylvania. 

The moral honestj' of the President, his political integrity, his model conscientiousness of 
purpose, and his ever present and all pervading lovo of Liberty has gained for Mr. Lincoln 
a hnlgment in the hearts of the American people. Whilst his far-reaching wisdom, hia 
political sagacity, his freedom from prejudice, and the gravity with v/hich he treats all impor- 
tant questions, has secured the admiration and gratitude of his fellow-citizens. 

To Anukkw Johnson wc turn and see the devoted friend of freedom, one who "has learnt 
in sntlering'' what his eloquent tongue has so fully and fearfully portrayed; one who is an 
onemy of all those who are enemies of the Government of tho United States. 

The Father of "Tho Homestead Bill," a Bill giving to all men a " Home' upon American 
soil, one who hates Rebels in arms, and Copperheads in private life, fully understanding tlw 
enormities of the one, and tho viUanous meanness of tho other. 

The nomination of these men is fully, openly and enthusiastically sustained bj' evcrj 
Loyal Pkxnsylvanian in Vv'ashingtun, and in order to aid in their lilection, up to tlua 
time between one and two hundred thousand documents have been issued by the Association, 
and to awaken still lurthcr interest in behalf of an object we hold most dear, at a meeting of 
the Executive Committee held August 21, 18ul, a committee was appointed consisting of 
Messrs. Clinton Lloyd, Chairman, Joseph M. Wilson. B. F. Stem, Lorin Blodget, J. N. 
Dickson, A. W. Kimmel and A. L. Henoershotz, to prepare an Addkkss to tuk Ploi'LK oif 
Pi;nnsylvania, upon the great issues of the day. This address was reported at the meeting 
of the Executive Committee, Sej)tember, 1, and t)rdered to be printed. 

At the same time, a Committee was appointed consisting of Jlessrs. LoRiN Blodokt, Chair- 
man. Col. Francis J<irdan, J. II. WelU, and W. H. (Jardner, to prepare an address to tho 
Soldiers of Penns_)'lvania, to be di.<tributed in. the lield, the camp, and tho hospital, whero 
our brothers in the conllict are scattered thoughout the land — and explain to then\ the oppo- 
sition of ih(; Coiiperheads against their exercising the right of voting, beginning v.illi tho 
op])osiii.>n i«f Judge Woodward, of tlie bench. The votes against theiu cast by Copp'-ilieads 
in the Ligi-latun; of our State, and finally the votes cast at the Polls on August '.^ when 
they even violaU'd that sanctuary of the American citizens, tho Ballot Box, by casting in 
th(,'ir Copprrhead votes to prevent the soldiers from enjoying their sacred right of sufiVage. 

1 hese two addresses are now respectfully nrcsented by the Loyal Penns^dvanians of Wash- 
in/^toii, to our brethren at home, in our good Old State, and our brothers at "Tho Froat** 
figliting for C.id and Freedom. 

The IJxecutivo Committee con«i:<ts of tho following persons. 
ni,'K)';i;T. i.o::iN OAi:u-;[;it. \v. ii. matiii:ii. JOim ROimrit, maktin at 

CO I ; WILLIAM A. IIi.r.N MMUiTA, A. L. MOJII.:. \V. I). 8TKM. n. R 

ci'.N'-. .;iA?t. w. iiiu.'jiAN'. A. I'. M(i'ii;,KsoN. nmvAKD avak: i;i,, .1. n. 

1)1 K. "N, .1 N. Ji;-.i^3. w. .N. i'i:i:i, ;v, .s. TODU Avi;i,i.s, .i. IL 

E1V...\. o. L. JOi:'j\N, (OL. V. I'0:ti'i;K,\V. M. WILSON, .IOSDPII St 

i::;i:;. .ia-ii.s a kimm.j,. a. \v. 1'0'iti;i!. .^. n. young, luwaiji) 



VVUiUClX LS, (J. N. LLOVU, CLINTON 

\aiiiNOTON, September, IWil. 



EDWARD MrPHERSON, PresidenL 
JOSEPH M. WILSON, Secretary. 



Av 



ADDRESS. 



The tra/scendent importance of the questions 
inv Ived in the approiicliing Presidential cam- 
piiign, renders unnecessary any apology for an 
effort to attract attention to their earnest con- 
sideration. It cannot be disguised that the 
issue of the pending conflict of arms is insep- 
arably connected with the results of the Presi- 
dential canvass, and that hence a correct undcr- 
Btanding of the principles involved in the one 
is essential to a proper discharge of our duty 
as regards the other. The rebellion of the 
Southern States is either right or wrorg. If 
right, we have been guilty of a monstrous 
crime in lavishing our treasures and the best 
blood of our people for its suppression. If 
wrong, then our dutj* to God and our race alike 
require that we should crush it at any cost. If 
the rebellion of the Southern Stales can be 
justified at all, it must be either under the right 
of secession or revolution. 

The right of secession, though strongly as- 
serted by northern sympathizers with treason 
in the outbreak of tlie rebellion, has been 
abandoned by themselves as utterly unten.ible. 
It is too absurd to bear the test of reason for a 
moment. It is to assert that a part is greater 
than the whole ; that there may be such a 
thing as a wheel within a wheel and the inside 
wheel the largest. It may therefore be dis- 
missed with the single remark of Andrew 
Jackson — " To say that a State may secede from 
the Union at will is to declare that the United 
States are not a nation." 

The existence of a right of revolution in any 
people has, it is preEumcd, never been doubted 
since the declaration of independence was pro- 
mulgated to the world. It is not an arbitrary 
right however, to be exercised at the dictates 
of mere caprice, but is governed by tolerably 
well settled rules and principles, and it is a 
right always dependent upon the circumstances 
which may justify its exercise, and these cir- 
cumstances are utterly wanting in the case of 
this rebellion. Though it is claimed to bear an 
analogy to the revolution of our fathers against 



the oppression of the British Government it 
differs from it in most essential particulars. 
That was a revolution like all others in favor 
of human rights; this the first in the hislorj 
of the world in favor of human slavery, and 
fitly characterized as " a hell-born conspiracy 
against human rights." The declaration of our 
independence was a clear statement of our 
wrongs upon which a confident appeal was 
made " to the judgment of a candid world," 
while the southern rebellion is so destitute of 
any justification that two committees of the 
same convention, in South Carolina, were un- 
able to agree as to their real grievances. If 
either section had cause for revolution it was 
the North, which might have alleged with some 
show of truth that the Government had been 
perverted through the machinations of the 
slaveholder, from its declared purposes which 
were to establish justice, insure domestic tran- 
quillity, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty to themselves and their 
posterity, and had become destructive of all 
these objects. So far from the South having 
any well grounded cause of complaint, it can- 
not be doubted that her rights were never more 
secure than at the very period when she plunged 
into the gulf of disunion, Mr. Buchanan him- 
self being the witness. Said he in his last aa- 
nual message to Congress : 

It is a remarkable fact in our history, that notv^thstand- 
ing the rop.atcd ofTor ts of tho anti-slavery party, no sitigle 
act has ever passed Congress, unless we may ixwsibiy ex- 
cept tUo Missouri compromise, impaiiing in tbo sliglitest 
degree thatfighls of the South to their properly in slaves, 
and it is noi probable that any such can bo pasiseil at the 
present or next session of Congress. 

And he further asserts that no right of the 
South in the Territories had been impaired by 
any act of Congress and never would be, and 
that the Supreme Court had just afiirmcd their 
right to take their slaves into all the territories. 
He then proceeds further to show that evea 
the personal liberty bills of some of the North- 
ern Sta es need occasion no alarm, as he de- 
clares they had been pronounced unconstito- 



tional ns fist ns th.y came b -fore Ibe courts, 
end that it w^uld betlie duty cf bis successors, 
as he l.oasts it Imd been liis, to vindicate the 
■uprcnmcy of the fugilivc slave law over llie 
confliciing enaclment3 of Stale Legislatures. 
Not only Imvc we this testiiuoiiy that all efforts 
of tbe Abolitionists had failedto impress upon 
the legislation of the country a character un- 
friendly to the rights of the South, but it will 
be remembered that the last Congress previous 
to the outbreak of the rebellion, had passed an 
amendment to the Constitution forever prohibit- 
ing any interference with the institution of 
slavery in any of the States where it then ex- 
isted. 

In view of these facts, well might Mr. 
Stephen."?, in his oft-quoted speech at Atlanta, 
challenge them to name one single act of gov- 
ernmental oppression, deliberately and pur- 
posely done, of which the South had a right to 
complain. It is, of course not to be denied 
that tlure were certain individuals in the North 
who did dare to disagree with Judge Wood- 
ward in bis conviction that "slavery is an in- 
calculable blessing," and did dare to agree 
with Henry Clay in his conviction that it was 
<« an everlasting curse." But of this surely the 
South had no right to complain, as these men 
bad learned their lesson at the feet of such 
Southern men as Washington, JclTerson, Madi- 
Bon, Monroe, Pincknt.y, Patrick Henry, Mc- 
Dowell, Clay, and Benton, all of whom have 
left on record, in some form, their undying 
protest against the system of Human Bondage. 
Having thus endeavored to show that the 
revolt of the South can be nei her justified 
under the right of recession nor of revolution, 
and having incidentally answered the incessant 
allegation that the abolitionists are responsible 
for the war, we proceed to iuquire as briefly as 
we may what were the real causes that induced 
the South to inflict upon the country all the 
untold horrors of civil strife. It is in vain to 
try to escape the Cjuclusicn which "fastens 
itself as with hooks of steel" upon every reflect- 
ing mind that the election of Mr. Lincoln was 
the veriest pretext for di-!-olution, and not 
this only, but that the Southern leaders them- 
selves created the pretext by their own delibe- 
rate action. The pronfs of this assertion are 
abundant. Southeiu men declared in the last 
Congress b' fore the outbr ak of tho rebellion, 
that they wanted no compromise; that they 
would accept no terms ; that they wguld stay 
no longer in the Union, even if we would fur- 
nish tiiem a blank sheet of paper and permit 
them to inscribe u])on it themselve' the condi- 
tions of their remaining. And since that out- 
break, they have repeatedly and emphatically 
declared that the election of Mr Lincoln was 
not the cause of their aciiuii, that it was the 
tesiiji of a Bclicmc of dissolution cherisheil and 
»ersistently pursued for more than thirty years 
»nd cuiniinaling in tlie disrupt ion of the Dem- 
•crulic parly at Charlesion by the agency of 
4ic6e very leaders, prompicil in their aciioii l)y 
^e Bolo desire to insuie the election of a sec- 



tional candidate, and thus firo the Southern 
heart, and, in the language of Mr. Yancy, 
•' precipitate the cotton states into a rebellion." 
The political course of John C. Calhoun ia 
utterly inexplicable on any other hypoilKsis. 
Himself the father of the (irotcctive Fystem, he 
soon abandoned it as he became fearful that 
its effect would be to incr ase the power of tho 
free States, and haunted with an apprehension 
that they might get the supremacy in all the 
departments of the Government ; that they 
mi'.Tht be able ere long to elect both branches 
of the Federal Congress and the Chief Txecu- 
tive, and thus, by and with the advice and con- 
sent of the Senate, be enabled to reconstruct 
the Supreme Court of the United States, he 
bent his energies to tho sole purpose of main- 
taining at least an equality for the South in tho 
Senate of the United States, as a check upon 
the increasing power of the free Siates, and 
failing in this, to prepare the Southern mind 
for dissolution. Hence the introduc ion of a 
free and a slave State^anjoa.Mw into the Union, 
the admis ion of Texas, with provision that it 
might be divided into four States, giving the 
South eight Senators in Co^'gress; the struggle 
for the possession oftheTcrritories — manifestly 
unadapted as they were to slave labor — the 
repeal of tho Alissouri ComproTsise ; the 
treachery and foul wrong by which they sought 
to get control of tho political destiny of Kan- 
sas, and the ultim:ite demand of many of the 
Southern leaders for a dual Senate, one from 
the South and the other from the North, the 
assent of both of which should be necessary to 
any legislation ; or for a dual presidency, one 
to be elected from the North and the other from 
the South, each armed with a veto power to 
protect his own section from unfriendly legis- 
lation. 

If then we have rightly interpreted tho 
motives which produced the war, and have 
fixed the responsibility for it where it properly 
belongs, our next inquiry is, under these cir- 
cumstances what do our interests and duty 
require? Can we say to the Southern States, 
"Erring sisters, go in peace?" Can we in any 
manner c wH'jisti ntly with our self-resjjcct and 
our du y to our race put an end to the desola- 
tion that war has wrought? We must cither 
compromise on some basis or continue tiie war 
until one party or the other shall have been 
subjugated. Peace is certainly desirable if it 
c;)n be permanently assured ; and compromi£e 
is our duty if it bo piacticable and can be had 
in such way as not to invohe us in more direful 
calamity than that from which we seek e-cape. 
Compromise must be had ei'her upon tho basis 
of dissolu ion or i-econ.struction. It is ditficult 
to believe that tlure is any considerable num- 
ber of the people of the North who won d con- 
sent to a dissolution- to have our i)lacc blotted 
forever from the map of nations — and saciifico 
ihe glorious memories of tho past, the rich 
b!e sings of the present, the glad h(ij)es of the 
future which arc g.irnered in our Union and 
cannot cx/ist without it. That Union has been 



the source of untold blessings to our own peo- 
ple and tlie woilJ ; it liiis insured us jd-ospei-ity 
at home and made ilic sini;,le dei'liiruiiou, ' I 
am an Aniericun citiz«.u," a talisman of safi ly 
where er the dag of the Union tlo ts. But 
apart from the m<ir« general consideration of 
the blcssinfis winch tlie Government has assured 
to the people there are some i>^riicular reasons 
that render such a conr»c both ba«e and imprac- 
ticable. Where shull we draw tlic line of divi- 
sion between the two sections? f^hall we yield 
up the noble t-tate of Maryland, wiiose pi-ople 
have just given renewed proof of their devo- 
tion to the Uniim, and are beginning to cliant 
tho song of deliverance from the foul blol that 
has so long tarnished her escutcheon ? What 
shall we do with Kentucky and Missouri, and 
Arkansas and Louisiana, all just about to wheel 
into freedom's line ? What with the people of 
Eastern Tennessee, whose sublime endurance 
and unyielding devotion to their country chal- 
lenge the a<luiiration of the world? Shall we 
remit them to the tender mercies of the demons 
of rtbellion, who will surely reward Iheir love of 
the L'uion with the rack the f^^ggot and the 
halter? If there was no other reaso!i for con- 
tinuing the war for the preservation of the 
Union, a consideration simijly of what is due to 
that heroic people ought to stimulate us to re- 
Bolve that rather than yield them up, we will 
. prosecute the war until " the last man and the 
last dollar shall have been followed by the last 
woman and the lagt dime, the last child and 
the last copper." But again : Is it possible to 
believe for a moment that we can live iu peace 
as two nations, having failed to do so as one, 
with two thousand miles of inmginary border 
ieparating us and with the same distracting 
causes that now exist still remaining in inten- 
sified force ? It may be safely affirmed that if 
it weie possible to make peace on such a basis, 
and to settle all di-'puted questions about the 
Territories the return of fugi ive slaves, and the 
payment of the expenses of the war, it would 
not be a jear until we should find ourselves 
again embroiled, and we should have war con- 
tinua ly until the exhaustion of one party or 
the other would eventually force a reconstruc- 
tion on some kind of terms. The God of miture 
has forbidden the idea of dissolution in the very 
geogra hical features of the country. 

"Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky, 

Mi'.n breaks not the meUal when Goil cuts the die; 
An 1 the Bt;u--flowcrlng banner must never "ho I'urlcd, 
For its blossoms ol light are the hope of Ihu world." 

If then permanent peace on a basis of dis- 
solution be impracticable, can we compromise 
upon any basis of reconstruction? What assu- 
rance ha\e we that the authorities who control 
the rebel armies will compromise on such a 
basis? So far as may be learned from their 
declarations, the acknowledgment of their inde- 
pendence is a sine qua non to any adjustment. 
They uuiiormly scout the idea of a reunion, 
and tell the miserable cravens who are begging 
on their knees in the dirt for peace and recon- 
elruction on the old basis of a division of the 



Government plunder that they will have noth- 
ing to do with tiiem ; that they wouM not hare 
them for their slavus ; that " they an; sick of 
Nort' ern society, that it is made up of Mmall 
trade.'imon, greasy mechanics, nixl fifili rate 
farmers struggling to be genteel, but win. are 
not fit for companionship with a Southern geii- 
tlennm's body servant;" that the only tiling 
they will ever do will be possibly to make a 
treaty of trade and commerce with us, jirovided 
we will agree to let them stand off at a respect- 
able distance and hold Iheir noses. Said Jeff. 
Davis, in a speech a year ago in Virginia, ' We 
would prefer Russian serfdom or Kuropean 
vassalage to a reunion with the North. We 
had belter be in union with a nation of hyenas 
than with the Yankees." Said Mr. Stej.hcns, 
at Charlotte, North Carolina, last fall, "Such a 
thing as a reconstruction is impossible; the idea 
must not be entertained for a moment. Recon- 
struction would not end the war, but would in- 
volve us in a more horrible war than that in 
which we are now engaged. The only terms 
upon which we can obtain peace is complete 
and everlasting separation from the Norih." 
And the last utterance we have had from the 
rebel leaders on this subject was the declara- 
tion of Jeff. Davis recently made to Mr. Gil- 
more, authnr of " Life in the Pines." Said he : 
"The North was mad and blind; it would not 
let us govern ourselves, and so the war came, 
and now it must go on till the last man of this 
generation falls in his tracks and his children 
grasp his musket and fight his battles, unless 
you acknowledge our right to self-government. 
We are not fighting for slavery ; we are fight- 
ing for independence, and that or extermination 
we will have." These declarations may serve 
to show what prospects of peace we have on 
the basis of a reconstruction of the Federal 
Union. And in their light what a miserable 
farce does the recent peace pow-wow at the 
Clifton House become I Surely the cheat is 
top transparent to deceive anybody or mislead 
the people anywhere, unless it be in the non- 
accepting school districts of Pennsylvania, 
the Five Points of New York, and other such 
intelligent localities, where the bow of modern 
democracy abides iu its chief strength. The 
fact that such a miserable ruse has been resorted 
to is evidence of the desperate straits to which 
the opposition party is reduced, though the 
attempted cheat is iu perfect keeping with the 
utter disregard of truth and decency, which 
proclaimed to the people of Pennsylvania 
recently that the amendment to the Constitu- 
tion, designed to extend the elective franchise 
to her soldiers in the field, was intended to 
give the negroes a right to vote. That the 
pu pose of the peace conference in Canada was 
solely for eftVct on the coming election i so 
manifest, that we should have been inclined to 
regard Mr. Lincoln as more completely desti- 
tute of sense than even his political adversaries 
allege if he had suffered himself to be deceived 
by any such miserable jugglery. It will not 
surprise us to hear of renewed offers of peace 



and more liberal concessions by the rebels if sooner or later reward oui" eflforts is to impeach 
the po itical success '.if their Northern allies of injustice (hat God who "hath made of one 
»hall require it ; but let the people be warned blood all the nations of men to dwell upon tho 
how they sutler themselves to be misled by any earth," and hath conferred upon them as their 
Buch specious pretexts. Once permit the ruse " inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit 
to succeed in securing to the Democracy the of happiness." It matters perhaps but little 
control ot the Government, and the rebels will to the result of this great conflict whether we 
find no difliculty in repudiating all the offers of be found upon the one side or the other for ia 
peace as having been made without authority, the hands of that '' mighty God who wields the 
as, indeed, those recently made iu Canada do not thunder and upholds the world" are the issues 
pretend to have been, and then with the aid of of the conflict, and lie will work out its grand 
a compliant administration they will force a results to the accomplishment of His own pur- 
settlement of the question upon terms to suit poses. But it matters everything to us that 
themselves. We say then let the people be we be found arrayed on the side of human 
aware how they trust the faiih of men whose liberty iu this her last and mightiest conflict 
souls are reeking with the crime of their fore- with her ancient foe — that we put ourselves in 
Bworu obligations to their country, and sufler such a position that we leave no tarnished name 
not their natural desire for peace to lead them to our posterity — that we give them no cause 
to trust the plausible promises of a party who to rise up and curse our memory with bitter 
have more than once basely betrayed them. curses for the heritage of shame and disgrace 
But granting that we may be mistaken as to which we shall have bequeathed to them if we 
the temper of the rebel leaders on this question are wrong now; and we may rely upon it that 
of reconstruction, is it at all clear that we can unless all the teachings of history are false, no 
compromise with them without degrading our party ever yet arrayed itself against the gov- 
manhood and yielding up all, and more than ernmeni in a great crisis like this that did not 
all for which we have so lavishingly poured sink under a weight of everlasting obloquy, 
out our blood and treasure for the past three It was so in all the great wars of England; it 
years? Have we duly considered the subject? has been so in our own history; it will be so 
Such a comprobiise of course involves an am- now. The men claiming falsely to be democrats 
ncsty for all past ofl"ences, particularly those of who are opposing the Government in this great 
the rebel leaders for with them, if at all, must struggle will in a few years be calling upon 
the compromise be made ; it involves their rein- the rocks and mountains to fall upon them and 
statement in all their personal and political hide them from the face of "their fellow men, 
rights and privileges, their return to the high and will be raking among the dead ashes of the 
places of the nation with more insolence and past for some even equivocal utterance in be- 
arrogauce than that which forced the peo- half of the Government in this its crisis hour, 
pie of the North to accept the issue of an appeal and be found endeavoring to console them- 
to the God of battles, rather than longer tame- selves with the reflection that they were not 
Ij submit to, and renders possible by the aid of opposed to the Government, but only to the 
northerndough-faces the accession of Jeff. Davis administration of the govei-nment — a plea that 
to the presidency of the United States at the may satisfy their own consciences but will 
end of another four years. Are we prepared hardly satisfy posterity, who will fail to appre- 
tbr all this ? Are we ready to clasp the hand ciate the distinction, and will be unable to 
of Davis and his confederate devils reeking comprehend how a man could be in favor of the 
with the best blood of our people once more in Government and yet opposed to granting any 
fraternal fellowship ? Surely we are not ready men or means for its support. 
for all this — and yet it is the price which we It is certainly one of the strangest develop- 
must pay for peace upon the basis of recon- ments of these strange times — this new-born 
struction. love of peace and hatred of war which baa 
Then, if peace be impracticable on either basis recently taken such hold of leaders of the 
named, there remains to us but war to the bitttr modern democracy. They have alwaj^s been 
end, until one part}' or the other is completely the war party of the country heretofore and 
subjugated, and we need be in no doubt as to bitter were their denunciations of those who 
the result. Surely eighteen millions of men, dared lift their voices against their policy, and 
stimulated by the consciousness that they are now their feeble lips keep piping continually 
fighting in a just cause, with all tho resources the weak song of peace and they declare there 
of the vastest empire in the world, possessed of can be uo such thing as a tvar Democrat. So 
aland fruitful in the production of all the ne- however thought not that great light of the 
oeasaries of life, and with an unrestricted com- democracy, the lion. Amos Kendall, who say9 
merce with all nations are equal to the endur- in a letter written to the democracy of Connec- 
ancc of a struggle with six millions, pent up in ticut since the outbreak of the rebellion — 
narrow limitsdaily contracting, with their ports , , „ , 

blockaded destitute of monev or credit recoe-- ^^'"""^ '"'""'" ^^ T'"^ * ''''"?„ "^'* P'"" Dt;niocrat. 1 

t«ui,n.nueu, ucsuuuc or moiK.y or Lrtiiit, recog- ,,j,,jy ,,,(,j,. ,.jg^^ ^^ ,1,^ n„„,g .^^^^^ democracy lius always 

nizing no Ood but the god ot slavery, and been tbc war i>arly of llio comitry. There wcro no pi-aca 

fighting for a cause that is abhorrent to the Koniocrais in the war of 1S12, ihcro were no peace Domo- 

betttT sciilinicnt r>f <.ll m....I-;.,,I In c„,.1, . c^i-'s >" "'« *"«■ With Mexico, lliore were none such in 

oeutr htnlimtnt ol all mankind. \n such a jackaon's tlino. Iiown with secession ami milliflcalion and 

Btrugglc as this, to doubt that victory shall, up wnii ibe Cuusutuiion and tlio Uuiua was tho JueUsno 



battle-cry. These men who cry peace are tbo subjects of 
King Cotloii, anil tliey ought to go South where Ihoy cau 
flaunt theu- puuco flugs iu the face ff their Kmir. Li-l ihcin 
go South where they properly belong and get up a pcaco 
party there who will bo williug to live in peace under tho 
Coustitutjon and they will entitle themselves to tho tliauks 
ci all good men. 

Iu the view that we have taken of the sub- 
ject thoa but a single inquiry remains, but it 
embraces the whole of the general policy of 
the Administration. Has the Government pur- 
sued the proper course to crush the rebellion ? 
And whether it has done so or not we deny tho 
right of the Democracy to criticize or condemn 
it for several reasons, and — 

First, because it is impossible to escape the 
conclusion that so closely are the Democracy 
linked in sympathy with the rebels that tho 
complaint of one is the complaint of the other. 
The proofs of this identity of interest and feel- 
ing are abundant. It crops out most strongly 
in Mr. Buchanan's last annual message to Con- 
gress in which he says — speaking of the Im- 
probability that there was any just ground for 
apprehension that his successor would be likely 
to make an attack on the rights of the South — 

Reason, justice, a regard for tho ConstitutioD, all require 
Ihat WE should wait lor some overt and dangerous act on 
the part of the President elect before rcsortuig to tho 
rtmedy of revolution. 

And again: 

Surely under these circumstances WE ought to bo re- 
strained from present action by the precept of Him who 
spake as never man spake, " sufficient unto to the day is 
Uie evil thereof." 

Showing by this most significant word, WE, 
how completely he felt himself and his party 
identified in interest with the Southern rebels. 

Again: humiliating as is the fact it is never- 
theless undeniable, that the success of the 
rebels depends upon the success of the De- 
mocracy, and vice versa. The success of the 
Democracy at the polls would be worth more 
than a triumph of their armies to the rebels, 
and the surest road to Democratic triumj>h at the 
polls is (hat which is most slippery with the blood 
of our brave soldiers in the field. There is no 
possible escape from the conviction of the truth 
of this allegation, and that any man not doubly 
dyed with treason can remain iu such a posi- 
tion, when he sees it clearly, is a proposition 
so monstrous as to be incredible. Fellow-citi- 
zens who have thoughtlessly acted with a 
party which depends for success upon the slaugh- 
ter of your sons, arid brothers, and neighbors we 
implore you, as you value your reputation 
your manhood or your honor consider this thing 
veil. 

Were more evidence neeeded on this point it 
is to be found in abundant measure in all their 
papers, in the speeches of their leaders, and in 
their general conduct ia regard to everything 
that concerns the war. You may read their 
papers from one year's end to another, you may 
listen to the speeches of their leaders in and 
out of Congress and you shall fail to find in 
them all one single hearty sentiment of sym- 
pathy with the Government in this awful strug- 
gle — one single earnest exhortation to rally 



around its imperilled banner. Nor on the con- 
trary shall you find in them all one singlo 
hearty denunciation of tho rebellion or its out- 
rages against humanity and violation of all tho 
usages of war. They are haunted with an ap- 
prehension of tho outrage and violence which 
might result from tho liberation of the slaves 
and their employment as soldiers in the Union 
army, and yet they have no words of itidignu- 
tion at the starvation of our prisoners in rebel 
hands. The cowardly massacre of non-com- 
batants by QuantrcU and his dastardly horde 
of villains in Kansas, tho horrid butchery at 
Port Pillow, the burning of Chambersburg, 
have failed to evoke from their stony hearts a 
single murmur of remonstrance even, while 
they actually quote columns from Richmond 
papers and parade extracts from speeches of 
Early in justification of the last-named horrible 
outrage. They grow eloquent over the uncon- 
stitutional outrage of rescuing a negro from 
the curse of bondage and shut up the bowels 
of compassion for the defenceless women and 
children who were driven forth destitute in the 
light of their burning homes. You find them 
ever eager to depreciate the results of Union 
victories and to magnify the results of rebel 
triumphs, and it is impossible to resist the in- 
ference gathered from all their conduct that 
they regard the liberties of the country as being 
in more danger from Mr. Lincoln than from 
Jeflf. Davis, and the arrest of Vallandigham 
as a greater outrage than the rebellion itself 
The voice of their party conventions is ever 
silent as to the outrages of the rebellion, but 
waxes loud and fierce over the deserved arrest 
of some miserable northern traitor who has 
been guilty of endeavoring to incite domestic 
insurrection among the people at home or stir 
up mutiny among our soldiers in the field. 
They study the Constitution solely for the pur- 
pose of finding limitations that may lessen the 
force of the blows dealt at the rebellion and 
seek to restrict its provisions within the nar- 
rowest limits in this regard, and yet stretch 
I;, .:".definitely to shield the traitor from well 
merited punishment. They justify the rebel- • 
lion because it is based on the sacred right of 
revolution, and deny the right of the Govern- 
ment to crush it because the Constitution gives 
no right to make war upon a sovereign State. 
They constantly invoke its provisions in behalf 
of those who have ignored their obligations to 
it and voluntarily put themselves beyond the 
pale of its protection, and they ignore all its 
provisions when invoked for its own preserva- 
tion. They deplore the employment of negro 
soldiers for fear that they may commit excesses 
not sanctioned by the usages of modern war- 
fare, and yet had no words of denunciation 
when in the outbreak of the war the southern 
leaders endeavored to enlist the services of the 
red-handed savages of the wilderness in their 
support, and boasted with hellish malignity 
that they would come to the work armed with 
the tomahawk and scalping knife. The reso- 
lutions of the last Democratic State Convention 



8 



of Pcansjlvaaia at Hanisburg teem with 
tlcnunciiitions of all the meiismus which the 
(iovcrniuont had adopted for tbe sui)pressiou of 
the ri'l(ollion — are barixMi of siiggestiuus as to 
any better means of nccoinpli>;liiii}^ it— glow 
wiih symp.nthy for the lion-hear:cd Dpinocracy 
of Ohio in their glorious struggle for the right 
as crucilicd in the person of V'allandigliam and 
yet contain not a word of dcnunciatioa of the 
rebels whose guns were at the moment thunder- 
ing in thfir very hearing against Carlisle. At 
the very moment when tlie electric wires were 
tlashing over the country the earnest call of the 
(loveruor for troops to defend the State against 
the rebel invasion of 18G3, a Democratic County 
Convention meets at Washington, Pennsylvania, 
and after transacting the business that brought 
them together a resolution was offered to the 
effect that the Convention do now adjoun, and 
that its members solemnly pledge themselves 
to go home and use ever^' effort to raise troojis 
for the defence of the State, and they vote it 
down by an overwhelming majority, thus de- 
claring their iixed determination to do nothing 
for the rescue of their State from the rebel 
grasp or to defend their own homes and hearths 
from rebel pollution. Their prominent leaders 
hr.ve, many of them, made it their boast that 
I hey had never raised a man nor a dollar for 
the suppression of the rebellion and have de- 
clared that they never would. They may en- 
deavor to delude the people with the plausible 
excuse for their apathy that the policy of the 
Administration had been changed, and that the 
r.-ar had degenerated into a crusade against 
flavery, but the fact is that from the outset 
I hey never lent any support to the Govern- 
ment except for a while when we seemed to be 
waging the war on the principle of not hurting 
anybody, when we were trying to shoot rebels 
with bullets cased in cotton for fear we might 
break their skins, and were carefully station- 
ing Union troops around every rebel planta- 
tion for fear his negroes might get off or a poor 
wounded Union soldier get on, while white 
men, our sons and brothers, were permitted to 
die in the ditches and trenches and negroes 
could not be employed in their place for fear of 
a violation of the coustitutional rights of the 
rebel master. No sooner however did the 
Qovcrnment awake to a consciousness that this 
war must be waged on the common-sense prin- 
«iple of hitting your enemy where you can 
hurt him mo;t, than the Democacy suddenly 
took refuge in the miserable subterfuge that it 
had become an abolition war and " they would 
none of it." 

Nor are the evidences of this identity of in- 
terest between the rebels and the Northern de- 
mocracy less abundant in the South. Their 
papers teem with encomiums of Vallandigham, 
Voorbees and Long and with ardent longings 
for the success of the democratic party, of which 
the following extract from a speech recently de- 
livered by J. L. M. Curry, a member of the 
itebel Congress, is a fine sample : 

Again, my hearers, wo bIkjuU remember thai much do- 



pends upon the choico Ih j Nortb?rn pnoplo ma'-- e for a Pres- 
iileut Iho incomiiijT f.all!*. There will bu at least two parties 
rcprcstMU I, i.. wii: the war party, who will doubtlrss 
mJk;' an • :i u > I: ,v I.mrolu retai; e I, and the peace party, 
«lio y. I !,] , ,: 1. ,| 1 .ffuil to elect a man ploilgua to giva 
tiic ('..;i, , ■ .1 ,. ji. li^:<^ auU rt'storc praoe — long-desired 
and ar(li'iit,\-,;i-a;y.-.;-a)r peace — to our blcoiliug country. 
Wo hope, wf iicsi, wo pray that they may be successful. 
[Tremendous 'jUcr-i iug.] 

Should they be siicci'ssful, such a shout as was nevn- 
b"16ro heard would sprcail over our afflicted South. Songa, 
sweet songs of praise, would ascend from every heart to 
the mansions ol Para<'ii.se, and the many myriads of holy 
angels who surround thi> brightand dazzling" throne of Om» 
nipotonco woiiM join in the chorus, and tano their harps t» 
a new soug of liberty to man on earth. IC such bo the 
happy result, our iudepondenco will bo forever oslablish.^d. 
[Cheers] 

But should Lincoln be re-elected, our fond hopes will ba 
dashed to tho ground ; our independence but a thing 
dreamed of; for we havo exhausted our resources, and 
could not possibly hope to bo able to continue Ibo war four 
yars 1 in;;er. Past experience has taught us that wo could 
expect no favors at tho hands of tho iudomiuble tyrant and 
usurper, Abraham Lincoln. Let us repose our trust in tba 
God of bultlis and anxiously await the result. 

If further Southern evidence is needed on thig 
point, it is to be found in the anxiety which 
they evince for the action of the Chicago Con- 
vention, leading to the irresistible conclusion 
that upon its aciion are all their hofjes for suc- 
cess dependent. 

Says the Richmond Sentinel of August 20; 

AVc have arrived at a very critical stage of the war. tv 
weather tho next six weeks will be a most difficult task for 
tho North. AVitliin that time it is not at all improbabl* 
that tho lu-niii .1 of Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan will hara 

iMcnal-;.. I .Ml ^il.lf(.l. Within that time it is almost cer- 
t.iin tl.ii r, ' i! > Cfiiivcntion will h.avo thrown the .aj>- 
jileni' ,1 , I , i -n-uctinn into tho already discordant 
.•aiduii . ■ . Ml,.. North. Lef ii; r.mait palicatly 

t/icresi'-'': /' .-.-;/■,;/./:,■- ' ^n, , i i ;,i; /ourselves to 
aiii/ .-/.■' '■ -.<'," :-./■>-!'.., . ,' : • fiyir fnm 

thati\..i' . ■ , ,,,,,.,/;.)._;,,.,/,,;,,/;,,,,,,,'. It may rnalit 
ilieif iUuuUua w,,i\>L, but cuJiiiU ujjict uii,\i.'' 

If we were to refer the question to the armies 
confronting each other on the banks of the 
Jaiues river as to which party they respectively 
desire to see succeed in the coming elections, 
can we for a moment doubt the response ? — that 
while from the rebel army we would get an ex- 
pression of their earnest desire for the success 
of the democracy, we should have an answer to 
our inquiry coming up in thunder tones from 
our own gallant army, " For God's sake stand 
by the Government at home while we endeavor 
to maintain it on the battle-field." 

But again: not only have the democracy no 
title to complain of the conduct of the war, for 
the reason that they arc identified in sympathy 
and interest with the rebels in arms, but fur- 
ther because they are to a great extent re- 
sponsible for the war itself. That they delib- 
erately invited the rebellion by their own acts 
and declarations will be tho certain judgment 
of impartial history. We are aware that wo 
here make a serious allegation, and we regret 
that time alone prevents our citing all the 
proofs. Let a few suflice as a sample of many 
more that might be adduced. 

It cannot be denied that both on the floor of 
Congress as well as elsewhere throughout the 
country prominent leaders of the Democratio 
party expressed their determination not to 
raise an arm against tho South if she attempted 



disunion, and Sontliern papers complained bit- fiil provision of it liberally in your favor, and 
terly alter the outbreak tliat llicy bud been de- wo pledge }uu ibul we will do so yd. imd tlmt 
ceived liy liieir Northern friends in their assu- it'oir inll .enee can uccornplisli it., y..iir riglilt 
ranees ihai they would stand by them. Tliey under tiiu Coti.sliluliou shall be \n:,,l sacred; 
counted on Northern dissen,si:!ns as a c ief bill, we want yon dislincily to under.vian.l ihal 
guarantee of their success. Judge Woodward wc will not permit you lo destroy this Guvcrn- 
had declared in Independence Square, in 1800, uicnt, and if you attempt that we will only 
and his judicial station gave emphasis to his endeavor lo outvie the other parly in votiug 
dec'aritlon, that, "the time would come when the men and means for your d' struction," — wc ask 
South might hnrfttlly fall back on its natural if this had been thv po.sition of the Democracy, 
rights and employ whatever means it possessed is ii to be doulitcd for a moment that the South 
or ccMild command in defence of its slave would have paused and weighed well tho 
property " Mr. Buchanan had told them in chances before she had hurled herself against 
his aniiual message that they had no right the bosses of t' o bucklers of a united people? 
to sec de, but if they did he had no right lo Never had ihc Democracy amorogloriouschance 
prevent it." The Democratic Couvenlion of for immortality, and never was glorious cLanca 
Peniifvlvania speaking for the party, had on more shamelessly lost forever, 
the 2-2d of February, 18GI, told the rebels by a No' only did (hey invite the attack, but thcj- 
resoLiiion, that "they never would take up did nothing lo repel it after it was made. They 
arms against the South -until the personal- declared in advance that they would not, and 
liberty bills ot the N rth should be repealed." they remained true to the declaration We aro 
F. W. Hughes and others had -volunteered to aware that the contrary Las been asserted by 
declare that in case of a dissulu ion of the our opponents who, even from their places in 
Federal Union Pennsylvania shou'd link herself Congress, have declared Mr. Duchanan wa« 
with the S uih. Fernando Wood had expressed, anxious to repel the assault and asked Congresi 
in the politest possible manner his regret lo the to give him the power by the passage of a Fore* 
Governor of Georgia that he had bem prevcLted Bill, which was refused. l5ut an examinalioa 
from getting fire-arms to murder us with. A of the record will show that this allegation is 
Democratic meeting at Philadel|/hia after tho but a part of the misrepresentation that ciiar- 
Star of the West had been fired in^o by rebel act.rizes all the allegations of the opposition 
balls on her errand of mercy to relieve the party. Wc confidently challenge thei)roduction 
wants uf the starving garrison at Fort Sumter, of a single request from Mr. Buchanan at any 
declared that in case of a dissolution of the time for a Force Bill, or for authority to put 
Union the natural geographical position of dowu the rebellion. In his message of the «lh 
Pennsylvania would be with the youth. And January, 18C1, the only one in which it will be 
that no i-.ssurance of immunity from the blow pretended that he asked for additional powers, 
of the Government might be wanting the after speaking of the executive authority to 
Con=;titutional adviser of the President, Judge collect the revenue and protect the p ^blic pro- 
Black had deliberately announced that " the perty and declaring, as he had done ia his an- 
Union mu^t utterly perish at the moment when nual message, that this " was still his purpose," 
Congress shall arm one ])art of the people though he had done nothing toward either, and 
against the other for any other purpose beyond h id permitted the capture by the rebels of-Fort« 
that q{ merely protecting the General Govern- Moultrie, Pulaski, and Morgan, and the arscn- 
raont in the exercises of its proper constitu- al at Mount Vernon, Alabama, and, subse- 
tional functions." quontly, the capture of Forts Jackson, Sts 

And now we ask : Can any man doubt that Philips, and Pike in Louisiana, of Pensacola 
if, inste d of this miserable policy tho Democ- Navy Yard anl Forts Barancas and Mcllae, of 
racy, true to their past traditions and true to Baton Rouge Arsenal and the New Orleans .Mint 
the motto of the party in its earlier days, "Our and Custom House, and the transfer of tlicgov- 
country, may she ever be right; but light or ernment property in Texas by Twiggs without 
wrong, our country," had stood up in their a single blow struck in their defence, he says, 
manhood and had said to the South as they "my province is to execute, uot to make the 
might have said in all truthfulnoss, ''Gentle- laws. It belongs exclusively to Congress to 
men, we have been your friends from the very repeal or enlarge their provisions to meet oxi- 
ovganiza ion of this Government; we have gcncies as they occur. I certainly had ni right 
stood by Southern interests through good and to makean aggressive war upon any Slate ;" and 
evil report; we havo carried heavy loads then evidently fearful that Congress might con- 
(politically) in defence of Southern rights ; wc strue what he had said into an intimation that 
have given you three-fourths of the patronage he desired enlarged authority- he hastens to 
and four-fiiths of the offices of the Federal declare: "I am perfectly satisfied that tha 
Governraont; we have supported your postal Constitution has wisely withcld the power," 
system at our expense ; we have suffered you (that is, the power to declare war against ti 
to fill the high places in the Army and Navy, sovereign State,) " even from Congress." IIo 
while we 'niudsilL' havo been content to fill then proceeds to say that " the fact cannot b« 
the ranks or work the vessel ; we have given denied that we are in the midst of a great rcT- 
you every right you were cnti led to under tho olulion," and "commends the subject in all 
Constitution, aud have interpreted every doubt- its bearings, to Congress. To them exclusivelj 



10 

btlongs the power to declare war, in all cases istration because they are identified in interest 
couteinplated by the Constitution," of which and sympathy with the rebellion, because they 
cases he had just taken care to inform them invited the revolt and did nothing to quell it, 
the riiiht to declare war was not one. We have we might fitly conclude this address with an 
becu thus particular in quoting from this mes- appeal to the people, whether they are willing 
eage to show how utterly gronndless is the again to entrust the Government to the hands 
assertion that Mr. Buchanan asked for a force of a party who have been shown to have been 
bill which Congress refused to give him. And chief instruments in its destruction; whether 
we aflirm that the language quoted is the near- they are willing to entrust with the duty of 
est approach to any requc-it of the kind that the subduing the conflagration the miscreants 
message contains. The fact was that the last who with their own hands kindled the flames, 
thing -Mr. Buchanan wanted was a force bill; but we feel that our task would be incompleta 
for if it had been passed he would have fouud did we refrain from casting a rapid glance at 
himself either stripped of the thin disguise by the measures of the Government which have 
which he sought to excuse his dereliction of provoked the fiercest hostility of the opposition, 
duty, or he would have bten compelled to swal- And first as to the general charge of uncon- 
low the sentiments of his annual message in stitutionality of these measures, it may be re- 
which he had declared that the General Gov- marked that it is no time to study Constitutions 
ernment had no right to coerce a sovereign when the assassin's kmfe is at your heart or 
State. The only show of a disposition to do theincendiary's torch applied to your dwellings, 
anything was his flourish about protecting the and if Mr. Lincoln had waited the slow opera- 
public property, (fee, and that it was only a tion of Constitutional measures in the outbreak 
flourish is shown conclusively by the fact al- of the rebellion, in the language of Judge Holt, 
ready adverted to that he did nothing for its " Washington city had been a heap of smoulder- 
protection ; but on the contrary had permitted ing ruins." There is a law of paramount ob- 
Floyd to send the army to the confines of Texas, ligation to all laws and Constitutions, not writ- 
with a full understanding doubtless of the ten in books nor upon stone, but on the "fleshy 
disposition that was to be made of it, and Ton- tablets of the human heart"— alike applicable 
cy to scatter the Navy to the four quarters of to nations and to individuals— the great law of 
the globe, and Cobb to bo impoverish the self-defense, which makes constitutional all 
Treasury and beggar the credit of the Govern- measures adopted for the preservation of either 
ment that he could not raise a dollar at less than individual or national life. This may seem a 
twelve per cent, interest. broad proposition, and we therefore propose to 

Now, in contrast with this undisguised treach- inquire what support it finds in the practice of 

cry compare the course of the very idol of the very party who now condemn it as the tyrant's 

the democracy in the past, Andrew Jackson, in plea. The battle of New Orleans was fought, 

a similar emergency. He dispatches General as it will be remembered, after peace had ao- 

Scott to Charleston on the first whimper of nul- tually been declared between the United States 

lification, orders his ships of war to its harbor, and Great Britain, but before the news of its 

sends to Congress a message that meant and ratification had reached New Orleans, owing to 

was intended to mean something, and issues a the want of means of communication between 

proclamation that will ring through coming the Capitol and that distant point v.'hich modern 

centuries. The idea that there was no power science has since supplied through the agency 

in the Government to protect itself from de- of railroad and telegraph. General Jackson 

struction could never have found a lodgment in then in command had been compelled, as many 

his brain ; and that he must act strictly on the a general in similar circumstances, to declaro 

defensive, as Mr. Buchanan thought he was martial law in that military district. Shortly 

bound to do, in other words, "stand still and after the battle news was brought from MobiU 

be shot at," was too much for the fiery courage that a British vessel had arrived in that port 

of the hero of New Orleans. Ue never thought bringing the intelligence of the ratification of 

it worth while to look beyond the obligation peace. Nobody doubted the truth of the report 

he had taken as Chief E.xecutivc of the United and the people, restive as any people must bo 

Stales for direction as to his duty. Says he, under the restraints of martial law, soon be- 

Ln .his message to Congress, "the Constitution, came clamorous for its abrogation. No atten- 

which the President's oath of ofiicc obliges him tion was paid to their complaints by General 

to support, declares that the E.xecutive shall take Jackson and the press soon began to inveigh 

care that the laws shall be faithfully executed;" against his military usurpation" and teemed 

and with such an obligation resting on his soul, with articles which it is impossible to distin- 

it is not to be doubted that he would have guish from the modern Copperhead productions 

taken care th:it it should be done, and if the with which the press of our day abounds. 

Constitution did not give him the means to do Complaints of infringement of the freedom of 

what it reiiuired he should do, he would have speech and of the press, charges of undue 

taken it for granted that he was to use all the exercise of arbitrary authority by Jacks^on in 

means that Cod and nature had put in his violation of the constitutional rights of the 

power for that jiurpose. people and of dangerous invasion of their 

liaving thus shown that the democracy have rights everywhere abounded, things soon reach- 
no title to complain of the acts of the Admin- cd a crisis. Jacksou ordered the arrest of a 



11 



Frenclinian by the name of Louillaier forliaving 
wrilteu au iiilliirnmatory coiiimuiiicatiou in one 
of the city papers and broiiglit him into his 
eamp ; a Iriend of L.ouiliaier who witnessed the 
arrci-t, apjilied to Judge Hall of the United 
8tat(3 Court for a writ of kuicas corpus, 
which wiH granted and put into the hands of 
aa oHicer to execute ; on his arrival in camp, 
Jacksuu put him uuder arrest and took his 
habeas corpus from him and stuck it in his 
pocki-t (^ rather a summary suspension of habeas 
corpus that), and then sent a iletachnienl to 
arrest Judge Hall and brought him into camp ou 
the charge of endeavoring to excite insubord- 
ination iu his military district, and after keeiiing 
him there a few days sent him up the river out- 
side his lines with directions to rem .in there 
until the news of peace should be officially re- 
t ceived During this excitement a courier ar- 
rived from Washington bearing, as he sujiposed, 
the otiic al despatches of the Government an- 
nouncing the latilication of peace, buton open- 
ing his papers he found that he had by a mis- 
take kfb the pac :et contfiining the despatch 
lying on his table at Washington. There ho 
was however, willing to swear to the truth of 
his mission, and not only so, but having with 
him the order of the Postmaster General of 
the United States requiring his deputies on 
the route to afford the courier bearing the news 
of peace al^ the facilities in their power for the 
rapid performance of his journey. Here one 
would have thought was suOicient evidence 
certainly to justify the abrogation of martial 
law, and yet Jackson, resting ou the mere mili- 
tary punctilio that he could not pay attention 
to auytljiag short of an official despatch still 
maintained his rule with iron hand. A few 
days afterwards another courier arrived from 
Wasiiingtjn with the missing despatches ; mili- 
tary rule was abrogated, the laws resumed 
their sway. Judge Hall returned to the bench, 
at once issued a warrant for Jackson's arrest 
on a charge of contempt of court in refusing 
obedience to the habeas corpus tind on the 
hearing of the case imposed a fine of one thou- 
sand dollars upon him, for which the old hero 
gave his check and left the court room. Now 
in this case — with the facts of which every 
Bchool-boy is familiar, and a reference to which 
would be perhaps unpardonable but for the 
fact that the constant perversions of truth by 
the Democracy seems to require it — there was 
military usurpation, martial law, suspension of 
civil remedies and of the writ of habeas corpus, 
illegal arrests, abridgment of the freedom of 
speech and of the press, all perpetrated, not 
by the President — who is Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army, but by a subordina-e military 
commander in a distant military district, act- 
ing wi;h Hit orders on his " ow7i responsibility" — 
without the slightest pretence of necessity as a 
justiiicition of his conduct; and yet what was 
the result ? Why, nearly forty years afterwards 
a Dcmiicraiic American Congress impelled by a 
sense of justice to that old hero and a convic- 
tion that he had simply done his duty, ordered 



that fine to be paid with its accrued interest, hj 
which act, as liis biographer Mr. Partoii, fi«ia 
whose work this account is taken trnihlully 
8 .ys "Congress notilied the future command- 
ers of armies, first, that they may place u city 
under miirtial Itiw when threatened \y aa 
enemy. Second, that they may keep it under 
martial law for the space of two months after 
the enemy has been vanquished and diiven 
from the soil and from the waters of the Slate 
in which that cily is situated. In other words 
Congress invested the military commanders of 
cities in time of war with supreme authority." 
Now what answer is attempted to this argutnent 
drawn from the history of the country ? Will it 
be pretended that the action of Jackson was 
confined in its ojieration to a particular dis- 
trict while that of Mr. Lincoln extends oveo 
the entire nation? This would only affect ih© 
extent of the exercise of the right, 1)U' in no- 
wise effect the existence of such a right and 
for the exercise of the right the Presid"ni is, 
of course, responsible to the country. It is a 
question of necessity of which he alone must 
judge. And that the assertion of the existence 
of such a right is not a novel thing in our his- 
tory is shown conclusively by the opinion of 
Jefferson, as declared in the great Burr Conspi» 
racy. Says he : 

A strict observance of the written law is one high fluty 
of a good cfti/.i.'ii, but not tbo liighest. Tlio \a.\\s of ui<-e»- 
Bity, of sflf-|irostTvution, of suriug our country wlieu in 
danger aro all of higher obligation. 

Surely, the people are not willing to discard 
the teachings of the great leaders of parties in 
our past history for the teachings of the Woods, 
Vallandighams, and Woodwards of the present. 
What is a constitutional way of putting down 
the rebellion has never been disclosed by these 
modern illuminators. When the committee of 
Vallandigham sympathizers waited on the Pres- 
ident a year ago to ask that the sentence of 
banishment might be revoked, the President 
agreed to it on condition that they would en- 
dorse as true the proposition "that there was a 
rebellion in the land, and that an army and a 
navy were constitut'onal means of putting it 
down, and by th( ir refusal to do so, they im- 
pliedly declared their disbelief in its truth." 
They thought it was a constitutional way of 
putting down a whisky insurrection, a Shay 
rebellion, and the riot at Boston in the case of 
the fugitive slave Burns, on which occasion it 
is said that President Pierce stood in the tele- 
graph office at Washington and almost worked 
the wires himself to assure the authorities that 
the whole military power of the nation should 
be used to enforce the fugitive slave law. 

There may be a difference as to the means 
that may be rightfully employed to suppress 
an abolition riot from those that may be 
used to suppress a slaveholders' rebellion ; 
but we fail to perceive it. It may be possible 
that an insurrection in favor of human rights 
is to be punished with fire and sword, and an 
insurrection in favor of human slavery is to bo 
punished by "digging it down;"' but our ot>- 



12 

jection to the latter is tbat it would exhaust that the conslitutionalify of them is a question 

the iron mines of the country in making picks for the courts and by tlieir dooisioii wu abide, 

and shovels before the work would be' uccom- As to the justice of such nieaHuros ag:iinst the 

pl'siied. But to look at this subject a little rebels, it uiuy bo sufficient to recall to rcc llec- 

more in detail, it may be safely aihinied that tion the fact that one of the firrU acts of the 

it -would he impossible to raise armies or main- llebol Congrcg« was to conliscatc the ]iro|icrty 

tain miiiiary subordination in time of war of all northern men in their midst upon which 

without imposing limitation? upon the rights they could lay their hands. It is nlieged, 

which have free exercise in lime of peace; however that the effect of such mofisur':>3 is 

neitlier is tlie justice of shooting a po(ir boy to crush the union seniiraent of (he South ; in 

for desertion and suffering the : coundrel who other words that the severity of such uiea'-ures 

told him to desert escape under the plea of defeatMheir object. It may be a sufScir nt re^ 

freedom of speech very apparent. Nor will it ply to such objection to remark that its f;ilsity 

sufiice to answer that the ordinary tr-bunals is shown by tlie f.ict tliat no f^oonci d cs a 

are open for the punishment of such offences, utdon man of the South escape from the clutch- 

for, as Mr. Limoln has quaintly observed, it es of the rebel leaders, than he " out-Ilerods 

woidd be very likely there would be some IIer()d"iii support of tlie severest measures ; 

traitors in the jury-box who would rather hang and his only compiaii.t is that we have not 

the panel than hang the criminal. This plea adopted mcas res sevei-e enough. No such 

of freedom of speech cones loo with bad complaint comes up from Andy Johnsin, or 

gr;ice from a party who, under Jackson's ad- Parson Urown'ow or Lo\. Montgomery of the 

ministration and thenceforward, sanctioned the Vicksburg Whiff. 

rifling of the mails and authorized the post- Tiic conscription bill has been anoiier sub- 
masters to throw out any documents going ject of bitter complaint. Although its uncon- 
Soulh wliich they might deem incendiary in stitutionalify was affirmed liy. Judges Woodward 
their tendency, from a jiarty which haspractical- and Lowrie of the ."^'upreme Court of Pcnnsyl- 
ly dt'nied all freedom of speech or of the press, vania, smarting under their recent defeat at 
and almost of thought for a half century in the the liands of ihe peo])le, it lias tieci ailirnicd to 
Soutliern portion of tiie Union and has tamely be constitutional by Jndgf Cadwahidcr of the 
sanctioned outrages which if perpetrated by District Court of the United States, wiih the 
any foreign nation would have been regarded sanction of one of tl;e most eminent jud'^r^s of 
as just cause of war. How much they are in- this or any other country — the lien, ilobcrt C. 
fiuenced by any real regard for freedom of Grier of the Supreme Couit of tlie United 
speech may be learned from the remarks of States. I>ut t) show the utter insincerity of 
Judge Woodward, in his speech in Independ- the complaints made against it by the democ- 
ence Square, in 18C0, wherein he dechires, racy it is surely unnecessary to do more Ihan 
expressly referring to Ihe Abolitionists, "The refer to the fact that they bitterly denounced 
Constitution has become too weak to restrain the three-hundred-dollar clause in the original 
us wlio have outgrown the grave and temperate bill as an unjust discrimination in favor of the 
wisdo a of our fathers, which excited no irre- rich, and made it the instrument of exciting 
pressil)!e conflict among brethren, but taught insurrection and civil war in the North; and 
them to dwell together in unity. I would then, when ihe exigencies of the milita.y situ- 
make it strong enough to restrain the madness ation. required its n peal they Avcre equally 
of our day ;" in other words he w uld apply bitter in their opposi ion to such re[icnl, and 
the gag law to every man in the laud who dare are now making that very repeal the pretext 
raise his voice in denunciation of the •' sum of for again arraying the people of the North in 
all vill.-iinies." The riots of last year that have treasonable hostility to the Government. Such 
cast a foul blot upon the ci y of New York, conduct needs no comment. Dtit they allege 
Biimulated as they undoubtedly were by the that but fur the removal of McCh-llan fioin the 
allegations of Vallandigham and others, that command of the ifirmies the peijle would have 
the Conircription Bill was merely the highway- kept the ranks of the army full by volunteer- 
man's jilea of "your money or your life," is the ing, and rendered a resort to a draft entirtdy 
best jiractical illustration of the consequences unnecessary. This allegation is completely dis- 
of unbridled licence of speech in times of great posed of by the following docunu nts, which 
public excitement like the present. are not found in McClcUan's report of the 

As to the suspension of the habeas corpus, Teninsular Campaign, 
it may be dismissed with the single remark W.^snixcTON, ^wjust CO, ISGl. 

that there is no sincerity whatever in the clamor Sni : I have just received tlie incluseii iiis,.at(:!i in ci; hor. 

that has been raised about it as is clearly f::!'';::\^'-''?: '"r^^'Il'rl'nv- s\'!'u*^:J ^ 

evident from the fact that the first olijection to it i ^; ,, , i i. ., i.-fJiU i riiccucJs in 

was thai the Presidenlhad no power losuspend ^ 'i ^ ' ' " i- imt iiroccoding 

it ; and then when he asked Congiess to give i^^^vu iiiiiiwitliou- (iliiV '' '''''■■■" ""'^''- ^Vomust 
him the pjwor, nearly every Democrat in the Kcsiicctiullyiyonr oi)eilioiitsfiv;iii, 

Ilou^e voted against 'it. GEOKUE C. c( I.! I.1..\X,^ 

111 iPj-^fird to the confiscation measures adopt- ^■'^>- ^'^"- f'-f>-^' 

ed l>y the Admiuibtruliou, let it suffice to say The following is the dispatch of Col Marcy, 



13 



to wbich Ctncral McClcUan alludes in the above 
letter : 

New Ydrk, Autpiit CO. 1801. 
I urg' you to maki^ o positivH uiul iiiicoiniitioiiul tk'iiiuiul 
for nil iiiiiTf'iliati) (Iralt ul tliu adiljiiuiial lroi)|)H you may 
requac. Moll will not voimiloi r now aiicl dii.fliiip is Hid 
duly sicccsoiiil \)\a\\. Tlij pcoiilo wili ftii|)laml such a 
•oursc, ruly uiion it, 

n. n. MAHCY. 

We propose to next clancc liriefly nl tlu; pol- 
icy ot the Administriitioii on llic slavery ques- 
tion, purticiil.irly as ri'p;ar<ls the omaneiiiiUion 
and tiie cniploynicnt of negro troops in liicir 
connection with the prosecution of the war. Let 
it not bo forgotten that tlie objection to the 
emp'.ONRiciil of nejjroes ionics from a party 
who have made it their boast that tliey have 
never voied a man or a dollar to suppo t the 
Government, and have deliberately declared 
they nevir would, and many of whom have by 
every means in their power endeavored to dix- 
Buadc others from volunteciing. The prejudice 
on thi.i subject is however fast giving way 
before the resistless current of t\ents, nnd it is 
beginning at last to be discovered that for 
every ne-ro in the ranks of the army there is 
one chance loss for a white man to be drafted. 
The democracy are at last beginning to get their 
eyes opened to the fact that a ncjro is not one xvhit 
better than a tvhite man, and his life of no more 
value. ^Vhy this c.Ktreme tenderness of im- 
pairing t e constitutiannl right of the slave- 
helder? It has never ben doubted that the 
usages of \v r justiCy the seizure of any prop- 
erty of your enemy which may weaken bis 
power or .-trcngtbcri your own, and conf sscdly, 
by the testimony of Southern men the eman- 
cipation of th ' negro is the hardest blow yet 
dealt at th:- rebellion ; then why spare it? Is it 
because the master holds his slave by a higher 
title than he holds other property ; that 
■while he holds all other property by deed or 
gift or will of man he holds his negro by 
patent from the Almighty ? We do not recog- 
nize the Divine sanction of slavery, and there- 
fore cannot admit the plea. Tlie democr.acy may 
as well accept the fact that their black idol is 
dead and aid in giving it a decent burial. So 
long as it remained quiet within the Union it 
was entitled to the protection the Constitution 
gave it, but when it laid its filthy hands upon 
the pillars of our political temple, and in the 
fury of a blinded Samson attempted to hurl 
it in ruins on our own heads, it provoked its 
own destruction. The first gnu fired at Sumter 
Bounded its death knell and it becomes not the 
freemen of ihe ^orth to attend as chief mourn- 
ers at its funer.al. Nor let us trouble our- 
selves about what we arc to do with these freed- 
Eic, Vv'hoa the children of Israel found them- 
es' /es upon the shores of the R.ed Sea with 
' 1 aroah's hosts hard pressing on their rear, 
'■.jey were, alike with us troubled as to what 
they should do, and in the hour of their per- 
plexi'y the voice of the Lord was heard unto 
Moses, "speak unto the children of Israel that 
thet/ go forward.'" So in like manner let us 
be not deterred by seeming difficulties but 



with unwavering faith in Ood "go forxcard^ 
and ere long Rhall bo heard the voices of our 
Miriams singing a new song of glory to th» 
Lord for hio great deliverance. 

The complaints about extravagant expendi- 
tures, corrujjti.in of Government, and burdens 
of ta.xaiion, arc alike destitute of foundation 
with the rest, and come with an equally bad 
grace from thepaity of Thompson, Floyd, ("obb 
h Oo., whose rapacity si)and not even the trust 
funds of the poor Indian. 

Time forbiils our entering into any cliborate 
discussion of our financial system. Nor is it 
nccess.iry, until it be chovvn, which never can 
be sliowii because it U not true, that it is worse 
than the financial system of any other couulrj 
in anything like similar circumstances. In- 
deed our financial syr'tem may ciiallenge com- 
parison with an}' that tlie world has ever scon, 
and instead of complaining at the bunleiis it 
has imi)0 ed upon us we have rather cause to 
bluifh for our material [ir asperity. Never h ivo 
the wages of labor been more remunerative, 
never have our people revelled in greater 
luxury, never hav- we enjoyed in more abound- 
ing plenty all the necessaries of life than at 
this moment.' The Secretary of the Treasury 
tells us in a recent stat nient that on tin; Ilth 
June, 18G4. the whole annual interest payable 
on the publi- debt, was $7I,C9D.T;;o l.'i ; of 
which there was payable in gold, $jO,8:3,(J7U 45; 
and in paper money, $20,870,037 70. 

Truly there is nothing alarming in this 
when it is remembered that in a few year.-i pre- 
vious to the outbreak of the rebellion the an- 
nual pu'dic expendi'ure had risen from aliout 
fifty millions to about one hundred millions, 
and that it was paid so easily that the people 
really were unaware of its increase. It is per- 
fectly evident that if the war was to stop to- 
morrow the annual interest could bo paid, in 
addition to our ordinary expenditures, without 
resorting to direct tax tion for a .'■ingle dollar, 
and with our vast rcsour"es as yet scarcely de- 
veloped, stimulated beyond all precedent as 
they undoubtedly would be by the removal of 
slavery, the only clog upon the wheels of our 
national progress, it is not to be doul)ted that 
we could liquidate the principal debt without 
impairing in any niaancr the industry of the 
country or imposing any burdens uj*bn the 
people that they could scn.oibly foel. The 
shortest way to get rid of our burdens is to in- 
fuse renewed vigor and energy into the war, 
and pu<h it on to a glorious consummation. 

Such then is our view of the general measures 
of the Administration, and such is the record 
of the Democratic party. That party has re- 
cently met in Convention at Chicago, and with 
that profound duplicity which has marked 
their conduct for the past few years, they have 
put forth a platform that means, and is intended 
to mean, nothing. They have constructed one 
plank out of the rotten material of general 
denunciation of the Government ; another, hol- 
low to the core, made out of a hypocritictil as- 
surance of their sympathy with our brave 



14 



ioldiers of which they gi^ve most powerful 
prjictical illustratiou in their persistcut at- 
tempts everywhere to deprive them of the frce- 
man'h highent rif^ht, the e ective francliise, and, 
as usuiil, not a single plunk iu denunciiition of 
the rebels, whose hopes they knew centered in 
their action. 

Tliey have nominated a candidate of whom 
it may siifBce to say only, that whatever be his 
personal, political, or military merit, he is the 
candidate of such a i)arty on such a platform ; 
whatever qualities he may possess calculatd of 
themselves to win the admiration of the people, 
have become soiled, dimmed, obscured totally 
by the associations in whicli he has voluntarily 
Buffered himself to be placed. This is a con- 
test in which, if ever, the moito of "principles 
not men " should be our pole star, not who is 
the standard bearer but what flag does he 
carry, not who is the commander but what 
army does he command ? Whatever of regard 
there may have been in the public mind for 
George B. McCIellan, sprang from the convic- 
tion that he bore the banner of his country at 
the head of the armies of the Republic, and it 
is vain to expect that regard to continue when 
he has deserted his flag and his post, and is 
endeavoring to rally the distracted cohorts of 
the rebel reserve guard of northern Democracy, 
under the dirty banner of base submission and 
unmanly peace. If Gen. McClcllan has seen 
fit to put himself in a position so humiliating, 
it is perhaps, a most forcible illustration of 
the attractions which the Presidential ofBce 
possess, and which have been powerful enough 
to warp the better judgment of better men 
but the people will not be deceived, and the sol- 
diers will not be deceived into following him 
in his recreancy to his country in this trying 
hour. They will not fail to see that the shortest 
road to peace is the support of the constituted 
authorities in their efforts to crush the rebel- 
lion by force of arms, and that support they 
will surely yield, undeterred by such clap-trap 
cries as the "Constitution as it is, and the 
Union as it was." They know full well that 
we can have no "Union as it was" until they 
can call back to life the thousands whose bones 
lie bleaching on the battle-fields of the coun- 
try, or repose in unknown graves with South- 
ern wild flowers blooming around them : until 
they can repair the " wild waste that war has 
made," and repay to the National Treasury the 
thousands of millions of doll.ars which this 
unholy war lias cost. Wc should be sorry in- 
deed to think that we should have a •' Union 
aa it was :" that all this expenditure of blood 



and treasure shall have been for naught, and 
that peace shall kave us whore the war found 
us. No! thank God for the hope ! wc shall 
have no Union as it wa?, but a more glorious 
Union, and one far truer to the purposes of its 
origin : a Union in which " truth shall be no 
longer gagged, or conscience dungeoned;" in 
which no being born in the image of his Maker 
shall be denied the right to read his Maker's 
revelation of His will : a Union in which no 
man shall be adjudged incompetent to speak 
the truth before the tribunals of public justice, 
because forsooth his skin is a shade darker 
than the standard color of the times : a Union 
which shall give practical illustration of the 
truth of the declaration of our independence, 
that "all men are created equal:" a Union 
in which the glad message of "Peace on earth 
and good will to men " which has come echo- 
ing down the corridor of the ages shall ba 
caught up and re-echoed with a mightier em- 
phasis. 

Let us then determine to accept our destiny 
without complaint and go forward in the dis- 
charge of the duty which God has assigned us 
with unfaltering trust. Let us at least not 
abandon this struggle and tamely submit to the 
destruction of our institutions until we have 
suffered at least as much for their prQiscrvation 
as our forefathers suffei-ed to establish them. 
Or, if we cannot catch an inspiration to duty 
from their example, let us at least determine 
that we can suffer iu a good cause a tithe of 
what the rebels have been able to endure in a 
bad one. We have not yet begun to put forth 
our strength in this struggle. We enjoy a 
prosperity that is the wonder of the world and 
but for the occasional sight of a widow's weeds 
or a wooden leg, we could scarcely realize 
that we are in the midst of the inost tremen- 
dous struggle the world has ever witnessed. 
The rebellion is fast tottering to its overthrow; 
its resources are nearly exhausted. Its only 
hope now is for a change of administration of 
the Federal Government and if disappointed 
in that, we may confidently hope to see it soon 
succumb. Let us, then, determine to redouble 
our blows and show the rebels that they have 
nothing to hope for unless they lay down their 
arms and return to their allegiance ; and we 
may rest assured that, ere long, we shall greet 
with gladness a restored union, and " shall be- 
hold the glorious ensign of the Republic," now 
first trailed in the dust by traitor hands, again 
"full high advanced its arms and trophies 
streaming in their original lustre, without a 
single stripe erased, or a single star obscured.*' 



I iBRftRV OF CONGRESS 



012 027 014 ft 



j!||l|i|lHlll'll''ii ^ 



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pH8J 



